People engaged in construction or repair work frequently have need for a lightweight and inexpensive device for storing and transporting hardware, such as nuts, bolts and screws, as well as other small items or accessories. Many tradespersons utilize empty five-gallon buckets, of the type originally used as containers for paint or drywall compound, for this purpose. These buckets are generally constructed of plastic and are adapted with handles or a wire bail for transporting the buckets around the job site. In addition, the buckets are sturdy, waterproof, and readily available at little or no cost after being discarded by the user of their original contents.
However, an undivided bucket is not well-suited to storing a variety of hardware or other small items in an organized fashion. In order to work efficiently, the worker must be able to easily and rapidly locate and retrieve the desired item from the bucket. It is therefore preferable that the bucket be divided into separate compartments such that items of the same type, such as nuts or bolts of a particular size or specification, be stored within the same compartment.
The prior art includes numerous devices intended to adapt empty five gallon buckets for use in storing and transporting articles on the job site. For the most part, these devices have been primarily concerned withholding and organizing handtools, such as hammers, screwdrivers, chisels and the like, rather than hardware or small items. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,350,065; 5,186,329; 4,867,332, and; 4,362,243 disclose devices intended to be inserted into the bucket and which provide partitions or holes for holding and organizing handtools.
Some prior art devices, while being principally directed towards the storage of handtools, additionally provide compartments or other means intended to hold hardware or other small items. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,350,065, issued to Darrey, discloses a bucket insert comprising a planar annular top positioned at the top of the bucket and a cylindrical cavity extending downward through the interior of the bucket. The annular top is adapted with an array of holes for receiving hand tools. The undivided inner cylindrical volume is designed to hold nuts, screws and the like. However, this device does not provide multiple compartments or volumes for organizing different types of hardware.
More elaborate approaches to organizing and storing small items within a bucket-inserted device are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,261,556, issued to Gatto; U.S. Pat. No. 4,925,026, issued to McKay, and; U.S. Pat. No. 4,826,007, issued to Skeie. Gatto teaches a bucket insert having radial members for dividing the bucket interior into a plurality (typically four) of separate storage areas. Storage and organization assemblies, comprising storage elements such as tool organizers or hardware storage compartments, nest within the storage areas and may be extracted from the bucket as required. McKay teaches an insert having a system of spiral springs for engaging and holding tools in a vertical orientation and which is further provided with a cabinet mounted on the wall component of the insert, the cabinet having a plurality of drawers for organizing and storing small items such as screws or nuts. Finally, Skeie teaches an adaptation for a bucket comprising a large base member adapted with a plurality of compartments for holding small objects, and an annular ring member including a plurality of slots and holes intended to receive and hold handtools.
What does not appear in the prior art is a simple and inexpensively-manufactured device which provides a sufficient number of compartments specifically intended for organizing and storing the wide array of hardware, tool accessories and other small items needed by tradespersons at a job site or by homeowners performing repair work. The objects stored in such a device may include various sizes of nuts, bolts, nails and drywall screws; Sawzall.RTM. and jigsaw blades; router and drill bits of different sizes and specifications; plumbing firings; staples, and; nail punches or other small tools.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a device which fits within the interior of a standard five gallon bucket and which includes a plurality of separate compartments for storing and organizing groups of hardware and related objects.
A more specific object of the invention is to provide such a device which facilitates rapid access to the objects stored within.
Another object of the invention is to provide such a device which may be manufactured and sold inexpensively.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide such a device in which the number and size of storage compartments may be adjusted to suit the individual user's needs.
These and other objects of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the following derailed description of a preferred embodiment of the invention.